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Abstract
The affordance of microblogging services has made them an ideal tool for communicating risk and crisis. However, research on social media and risk communication is still in its infancy. This study, following the uses and gratifications framework, attempts to give some insight into the way micro-bloggers communicate about risk by investigating food safety communications on the microblogging service in China. A content analysis was conducted on 6186 microblog posts relating to 12 recent food safety incidents in China. A series of bivariate chi-square tests was conducted to test the association between micro-bloggers and gratifications. The results indicate that different types of micro-bloggers gratify different needs. Compared to other types of micro-bloggers, the general public tends to use microblogging to express opinions on food safety incidents, regulation and/or policy, rather than simply disseminating information; members of the public enjoy fewer multimedia affordances in their microblog posting but express more negative feelings. Although we anticipate growth in the use of social media in environmental health communication, caution is still needed: communication in China still follows a traditional top-down pattern.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship Award from the University of Connecticut (USA). The author sincerely thanks Carolyn Lin, David Atkin, Ross Buck, Diana Rios, and Art VanLear for their comments and suggestions. The author is also grateful to Yue Wu and Hongliang Chen for assistance in the content analysis.
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Notes on contributors
Yi Mou
Yi Mou is assistant professor of the Faculty of Humanities and Arts at Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau. Her research interests include health communication and new media adoption and effects.